Tag Archives: Featured

05.06.2019 – The hotel industry in Switzerland recorded 16.7 million overnight stays during the winter tourist season (November 2018 to April 2019), i.e. the best result since the winter season of 2007/2008. Compared with the same period last year this represents an increase of 0.7% (+117 000). With 8.8 million overnight stays, foreign demand rose by 1.0% (+83 000). Domestic visitors registered a slight increase of 0.4%...

Politics as practiced in a bygone era of stability no longer offers any solutions to these profound disruptions. I recently read a fascinating history of the social, political and economic context of the American Revolution: The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon Wood. What is particularly striking is the critical role played by rapid social changes in the mid-1700s. Conventional histories focus on the...

(Ti-press) The number of packages processed by the Swiss Postexternal link office’s three parcel centres has been rising steadily since they opened 20 years ago. During that time, the centres in Härkingen, Daillens and Frauenfeld have handled more than 3.1 billion packages. On average, 800,000 parcels roll along their conveyor belts per day, Swiss Post announced on Mondayexternal link. On peak days during the Christmas...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.13% at 1.117 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 04(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The global capital markets are stabilizing today after taking a body blow of broadening the use of US tariffs (in migration dispute with Mexico), threatening the ratification of NAFTA 2.0, and still escalating hostile rhetoric between...

Is recession coming? Well, yeah, of course, it is but whether it is now, six months from now or 2 years from now or even longer is impossible to say right now. Our Jeff Snider has been dutifully documenting all the negativity reflected in the bond and money markets and he is certainly right that things are not moving in the right direction. But moving in the wrong direction, even deeply, as we discovered in 2015/16,...

Sunrise, who is to buy UPC for CHF6.3 billion, expects the deal to go through in Autumn. COMCO, the Swiss Competition Commission, is to intensify its investigation of telecoms operator Sunrise’s takeover of UPC Switzerland, amid fears that the move could create positions of market dominance in several areas. Making the announcementexternal link Monday, COMCO wrote that “initial investigations showed that the buyout...

The fact that the mainstream isn’t taking this all very seriously isn’t anything new. But how serious are things really? That’s pretty much the only question anyone should be asking. What are the curves telling us about what’s now just over the horizon? I hesitate to use 2008 comparisons too often because many people immediately jump to extrapolations, especially in these more esoteric market indications. If you say...

We have been discussing the impossibility of China nuking the Treasury bond market. We covered a list of challenges China would face. Then last week we showed that there cannot be such a thing as a bond vigilante in an irredeemable currency. Now we want to explore a different path to the same conclusion that China cannot nuke the Treasury bond market. To review something we have said many times, the dollar is borrowed....

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% at 1.1181 . FX Rates Overview: The weekend failed to break the grip of investor worries that is driving stocks and yields lower. The US Administration’s penchant for tariffs is not simply aimed at China, where there is some sympathy, but the move against Mexico, dropping special privileges for India, and apparently, had considered tariffs on Australia. At the same time, the...

03.06.2019 – The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.3% in May 2019 compared with the previous month, reaching 102.7 points (December 2015 = 100). Inflation was 0.6% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The 0.3% increase compared with the previous month can be explained by several factors including rising prices for fuel and for...